Charles Nauert, July 26, 1928 — Sept. 29, 2013

Charles G. Nauert, professor of history at the University of Missouri in Columbia, died Sunday, September 29, in Overland Park. He was a resident of Columbia from 1961 to 2009, when he and his wife Jean moved to Overland Park to be near her family as her Parkinson’s disease became more severe. Jean died May 6, 2013. They are survived by two sons, Paul (Robert Covington) of Santa Cruz, CA, and Jon (Jessamyn Tuttle), of Mount Vernon, WA.

Charles was born July 26, 1928, in Quincy, IL, to Charles G. (Sr.) and Helen C. Nauert. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1955, he held positions at Bowdoin College in Maine and Williams College in Massachusetts before moving to Missouri. He gained recognition for his work on Erasmus and the cultural and intellectual history of Renaissance-Reformation Europe, authoring three books, numerous articles, and extensive notes to two volumes of the collected works of Erasmus. For his teaching, scholarship, and service he became the 1991 recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Award given by the four-campus University of Missouri system. When he retired in 1999, a volume of essays by his colleagues and former students was published in his honor.

A memorial ceremony and burial will be held in Columbia, with details to be announced at a later date. Donations in Charles’s memory may be given to the University of Missouri-Columbia College of Arts and Science or Graduate School, or to a charity of your choice. (Arr: Cremation Society of Kansas & Missouri, 8837 Roe, Prairie Village, KS 66207; 913-383-9888)